re-Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2!
sorry Goatman
but i think i'll buy something else!
part of a post from CD Freaks
"Microsoft's Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a technology which enables the copyright owner of an intellectual property (for example, a digital audio file), to control how the listener uses the file.
"To protect against unauthorised duplication, Sound Blaster Audigy [or Sound Blaster Live!, in the other readme] shuts down its digital output when encrypted files are played back through a Microsoft DRM supported audio player (for example, Creative PlayCenter)."
So, if you play certain WMA files that are marked by the content provider as protected the SB will not allow you to use the digital output. For more information you should read the entire article at TheRegister here, it explains it with more details.
Note that DRM will probably be widely used and that it seems that hardware vendors are using it without giving a warning, so be informed before you buy!
I guess I will cross Sound Blaster off my "buy" list.